About Me

My husband and I, the Dynamic Duo, have been married since 2003. We've weathered the storm of chronic disease (diagnosis 2006), infertility (diagnosis 2007), turning 30 (2006/2007 respectively) a first adoption (2009) of a tender hearted, compassionate Ukrainian BIG boy (born 2006), who has told us he'd like a baby sister, baby brother, big brother, and REALLY big sister. We recently completed our second Ukrainian adoption journey, which brought us a daughter (born 2005). We'll see what else God brings our way!

Monday, March 17, 2008

Home Study Progress

March is flying by! We've had our interviews (both as a couple and individually) in the last week and a half, and I attended a baby shower and wedding on Saturday. No sleep for the adopting!We're making progress with the education requirements. We have 6 education requirements to fulfill: an online course, a class taught by our agency, and 4 books to read. We've completed the online class and are finishing the class at the agency tonight, and I've finished one book. But we still have a long ways to go.

We meet with our home study social worker for the last time tomorrow. She's coming to our house to evaluate the living conditions, which are excellent, of course! We found out at the first meeting that our social worker approves us to adopt two or one, so it isn't just our decision. And I found out that there's a Ukranian population just a few miles south of us. Who knew?!

As we've been going through the education requirements, I've been gathering paperwork for the next step, submitting the I-600A. The I-600A is a form filed with the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). At this point, all we're waiting on is the home study paperwork, which won't get to us until we've finished 4 of the 6 education requirements. But I still have a lot of paperwork to gather for the dossier (requirements for Ukraine), so that'll keep me busy.

I'm leaving for a week on Wednesday to visit my friend Lorena in Ecuador. I'm so excited to see her and spend time with her in the beautiful mountains! And the trip there and back will allow me plenty of reading time (I don't plan on reading much when I get to Ecuador!). Dave plans on taking Thursday and Friday off to catch up on reading and house projects, and to have some relaxing time at home. He's been very dutiful with his reading requirements...every day finishing about 20 pages. It's a lot to take in. I'm so appreciative to have a husband who's as dedicated to this adoption as I am. Many times the husbands are being dragged along by their wives. And, I admit, I was more excited than he was in the beginning, but now we're both excited and anxious to get our child(ren) home.